Though the Northeast had a major snow storm, which kept a few teams from attending, the weather in Utah was sunny and 70’s for the competition.

During the week, we met a lot of past participants who now come back to the event as industry recruiters or professors, including Heidi Clark who teaches at Southeast Missouri State and Southwestern Illinois College. She was at BYU a decade earlier when she competed in her senior year and is now thrilled to bring students to the event. She said that, “it is a major life event for her students, not just a competition and career event.” She noted that some of them had never been on an airplane before, or when the event was in North Carolina, it was the first time some of her students had seen the ocean, so, for her and them, NCLC is so much more than just a career event.

The competition was also on at the Career Fair where nearly 80 landscape companies met with students to talk with them about jobs and internships, which dovetailed nicely with the launch of NALP’s LandscapeIndustryCareers.org website and job board.

Students were also honored with scholarships at the Foundation reception where 58 students received scholarships totaling $75,000, bring this year’s scholarship total to $100,000.

For a complete list of winners, visit the National Collegiate Landscape Competition website.

Next year’s competition will be held at Alamance Community College, in Graham, North Carolina, March 13-17, 2018.

Thanks to all the sponsors and companies who made NCLC possible including the lead sponsors: The STIHL Inc. at the Platinum level; JOHN DEERE at the Gold level; Caterpillar Inc., Gravely, Husqvarna at the Silver level; and Anchor Wall Systems, Inc., Aspire, Belgard, Brightview, Ewing Irrigation Landscape and Supply, Hunter, Kawasaki, One Grounds Management, Proven Winners, The Toro Company, and Site One at the Bronze level.